Keyboard navigation menu

ABSTRACT

Provided is a keyboard navigation menu which provides navigation within a software application using keyboard commands instead of mouse/cursor based inputs. The keyboard activation menu can improve upon traditional mouse-based menus which often include hidden tabs or require multiple mouse inputs. In one example, the method may include displaying, via a user interface, a keyboard navigation menu comprising a plurality of different keyboard inputs that when pressed navigate a view of the user interface to a plurality of pages of a software application, respectively, detecting a keyboard input from among the plurality of different keyboard inputs which corresponds to a second page from among the plurality of pages of the software application, and changing a view of the user interface from the first page to the second page of the software application that corresponds to the detected keyboard input.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION(S)

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.16/884,471, which was filed on May 27, 2020, in the United States Patentand Trademark Office, the entire disclosure of which is incorporatedherein by reference for all purposes.

BACKGROUND

A navigation menu (also referred to herein as a navigation bar,navigation panel, navigation tab, etc.) is typically embedded within acontent frame of an application and contains navigable items todifferent functions of the application. A common implementation of thenavigation menu is in the form of a horizontal list of links/tabs at thetop of a page. The links may be positioned below a header of theapplication and outside of a main content area of the page. A user mayinteract with the navigation menu using a cursor that is controlled by apointing instrument such as a mouse, a finger, a stylus, or the like.

Larger applications can include many functions which requires many tabswithin the navigation menu. In addition, user devices such as tablets,smart phones, smart wearables, and the like, have limited display sizes.Often, the list of navigation tabs is not able to fit on the screen atthe same time. In this situation, some of the navigation tabs must behidden from view. Furthermore, finding the tabs (including hidden tabs)within the navigation menu can require additional inputs such asscrolling, opening a drop-down menu, or the like.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Features and advantages of the example embodiments, and the manner inwhich the same are accomplished, will become more readily apparent withreference to the following detailed description taken in conjunctionwith the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1A is a diagram illustrating a database system architecture inaccordance with an example embodiment.

FIG. 1B is a diagram illustrating a process in which navigation withinan application is controlled via a keyboard in accordance with anexample embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a mouse-controlled navigation menu inaccordance with example embodiments.

FIGS. 3A-3F are diagrams illustrating interaction with a keyboardnavigation menu in accordance with example embodiments.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a method of controlling navigation viaa keyboard navigation menu in accordance with an example embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a computing system for use in theexamples herein in accordance with an example embodiment.

Throughout the drawings and the detailed description, unless otherwisedescribed, the same drawing reference numerals will be understood torefer to the same elements, features, and structures. The relative sizeand depiction of these elements may be exaggerated or adjusted forclarity, illustration, and/or convenience.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In the following description, specific details are set forth in order toprovide a thorough understanding of the various example embodiments. Itshould be appreciated that various modifications to the embodiments willbe readily apparent to those skilled in the art, and the genericprinciples defined herein may be applied to other embodiments andapplications without departing from the spirit and scope of thedisclosure. Moreover, in the following description, numerous details areset forth for the purpose of explanation. However, one of ordinary skillin the art should understand that embodiments may be practiced withoutthe use of these specific details. In other instances, well-knownstructures and processes are not shown or described in order not toobscure the description with unnecessary detail. Thus, the presentdisclosure is not intended to be limited to the embodiments shown but isto be accorded the widest scope consistent with the principles andfeatures disclosed herein.

Software applications including native applications, web applications,mobile applications, and the like, can require an extensive number offunctions. Functions often include their own pages or views within anapplication. As a non-limiting example, functions of an accountingapplication may include ordering, billing, account management, and thelike. Each function may have its own page or view within the applicationwhere content associated with the function is accessible.

Often, an application is designed with one or more menus (bar, panel,tab, etc.) for opening different content and navigating to differentfunctions. The menu may be embedded or otherwise integrated within thecontent template of the application. The menu may provide the user withtabs or other items that can be selected by a mouse and cursor toopen/navigate to different pages/content of the application. However,the embedded menu may not be able to display all available menu items(selectable tabs) at the same time due to size requirements of thewindow. This problem is further frustrated due to the reduced screensize of many mobile computing devices which limits the amount oftemplate space for the menu and the actions displayed therein.

The example embodiments are directed to a keyboard navigation menu whichovercomes the drawbacks of traditional mouse-based menus through the useof keyboard controls that do not require visibility or mouse/cursormanipulation. Instead, the keyboard controls can be simple keyboardinputs (e.g., numbers, characters, etc.) that, when received, navigatebetween the functions and/or pages of an application. The keyboardnavigation menu may replace the traditional mouse-based navigation menu.For example, a user may activate the keyboard navigation menu causingthe mouse-based navigation menu to be disabled, hidden, and/or the like.As another example, the keyboard navigation menu can be a standalonemenu that does away with traditional mouse-based navigation menus.

Each function (or page) within the application may have its owndedicated keyboard input (e.g., one or more keys) that when pressedcauses a window (or view of a user interface) to navigate to thecorresponding function within the application. The keyboard navigationmenu may include a display of an identifier of each function and anidentifier of the corresponding keyboard input for navigating to therespective function. In some cases, the keyboard navigation menu canremain visible or partially visible to enable the user to learn whichkeyboard inputs correspond to which functions of the application. Asanother option, the keyboard navigation menu may be hidden from view.Thus, the viewing area of the application content may be increased.

In some embodiments, the keyboard navigation menu may be configurablethereby allowing a user to customize the format (e.g., color, size,etc.) of the keyboard navigation menu. In addition, the user maymodify/rearrange an order in which the functions appear in the keyboardnavigation menu. In addition, the user may modify which keyboard inputsare associated with which activities. For example, the user may enter acommand to switch keyboard inputs assigned to two different functions inthe keyboard navigation menu. The keyboard navigation menu may includeselectable boxes, links, etc., which allow the user to easily navigatebetween a keyboard mode in which the keyboard navigation menu is fullydisplayed or not displayed at all and a learning mode in which thekeyboard navigation menu is partially displayed allowing thefunction-key press assignments to be partially visible.

The keyboard navigation menu may be activated with a button, a panel, alink, a tab, or other selectable identifier that can be selected using acommand entered via a mouse, keyboard, or other input means. In responseto activation, the keyboard navigation may expand and in a horizontaldirection on the screen. For example, the keyboard navigation menu mayexpand in a lateral direction on the screen thereby revealing a view ofthe keyboard inputs and the corresponding menu functions with which theyare associated. In some cases, the keyboard navigation menu mayautomatically collapse in an opposite horizontal direction afterexpanding or the user may trigger the collapse through an additionalbutton/link. Once the keyboard navigation menu has been activated, theselectable identifier may change colors or include an additional markerto indicate that the keyboard navigation is in an active mode. At thesame time, the mouse-based navigation menu may be disabled and evenhidden from view thereby increasing the screen space of the applicationcontent.

FIG. 1A illustrates a system architecture of a database 100A inaccordance with an example embodiment. It should be appreciated that theembodiments are not limited to architecture shown in FIG. 1A or to adatabase architecture, however, FIG. 1A is shown for purposes ofexample. The application including the keyboard navigation menudescribed herein may access data from the database 100A. For example,the database 100A may include or interact with applications whichprovide user interfaces to visualize underlying data, or the like.

Referring to FIG. 1A, the database 100A includes a data store 110, adatabase management system (DBMS) 120, a server 130, services 135,clients 140, and applications 145. Generally, services 135 executingwithin server 130 receive requests from applications 145 executing onclients 140 and provides results to the applications 145 based on datastored within data store 110. For example, server 130 may execute andprovide services 135 to applications 145. Services 135 may compriseserver-side executable program code (e.g., compiled code, scripts, etc.)which provide functionality to applications 145 by providing userinterfaces to clients 140, receiving requests from applications 145(e.g., drag-and-drop operations), retrieving data from data store 110based on the requests, processing the data received from data store 110,and providing the processed data to applications 145.

In one non-limiting example, a client 140 may execute one or more of theapplications 145 to perform visual analysis via a user interfacedisplayed on the client 140 to view analytical information such ascharts, graphs, tables, and the like, based on the underlying datastored in the data store 110. The applications 145 may pass analyticinformation to one of services 135 based on input received via theclient 140. A structured query language (SQL) query may be generatedbased on the request and forwarded to DBMS 120. DBMS 120 may execute theSQL query to return a result set based on data of data store 110, andthe applications 145 may create a report/visualization based on theresult set. In this example, DBMS 120 may perform a query optimizationon the SQL query to determine a most optimal alternative query executionplan.

Raw data from various sources may be stored in the data store 110. Inthis example, the applications 145 and/or the services 135 may extractcore features from the raw data and also derive features from the corefeatures. The features may be stored as database tables within the datastore 110. For example, a feature may be assigned to its own table withone or more columns of data. In one example, the features may beobserved as numerical values.

The services 135 executing on server 130 may communicate with DBMS 120using database management interfaces such as, but not limited to, OpenDatabase Connectivity (ODBC) and Java Database Connectivity (JDBC)interfaces. These types of services 135 may use SQL and SQL script tomanage and query data stored in data store 110. The DBMS 120 servesrequests to query, retrieve, create, modify (update), and/or delete datafrom database files stored in data store 110, and also performsadministrative and management functions. Such functions may includesnapshot and backup management, indexing, optimization, garbagecollection, and/or any other database functions that are or becomeknown.

Server 130 may be separated from or closely integrated with DBMS 120. Aclosely-integrated server 130 may enable execution of services 135completely on the database 100A, without the need for an additionalserver. For example, server 130 may provide a comprehensive set ofembedded services which provide end-to-end support for Web-basedapplications. The services 135 may include a lightweight web server,configurable support for Open Data Protocol, server-side JavaScriptexecution and access to SQL and SQLScript. Server 130 may provideapplication services (e.g., via functional libraries) using services 135that manage and query the database files stored in the data store 110.The application services can be used to expose the database data model,with its tables, views and database procedures, to clients 140. Inaddition to exposing the data model, server 130 may host system servicessuch as a search service, and the like.

Data store 110 may be any query-responsive data source or sources thatare or become known, including but not limited to a SQL relationaldatabase management system. Data store 110 may include or otherwise beassociated with a relational database, a multi-dimensional database, anExtensible Markup Language (XML) document, or any other data storagesystem that stores structured and/or unstructured data. The data of datastore 110 may be distributed among several relational databases,dimensional databases, and/or other data sources. Embodiments are notlimited to any number or types of data sources.

In some embodiments, the data of data store 110 may include files havingone or more of conventional tabular data, row-based data, column-baseddata, object-based data, and the like. Moreover, the data may be indexedand/or selectively replicated in an index to allow fast searching andretrieval thereof. Data store 110 may support multi-tenancy toseparately support multiple unrelated clients by providing multiplelogical database systems which are programmatically isolated from oneanother. Furthermore, data store 110 may support multiple users that areassociated with the same client and that share access to common databasefiles stored in the data store 110.

Data items (e.g., data records, data entries, etc.) may be stored,modified, deleted, and the like, within the data store 110. As anexample, data items may be created, written, modified, or deleted basedon instructions from any of the applications 145, the services 135, andthe like. Each data item may be assigned a globally unique identifier(GUID) by an operating system, or other program of the database. TheGUID is used to uniquely identify that data item from among all otherdata items stored within the database 100.

The database 100A may include metadata defining objects which are mappedto logical entities of data store 110. The metadata may be stored indata store 110 and/or a separate repository (not shown). The metadatamay include information regarding dimension names (e.g., country, year,product, etc.), dimension hierarchies (e.g., country, state, city,etc.), measure names (e.g., profit, units, sales, etc.) and any othersuitable metadata. According to some embodiments, the metadata includesinformation associating users, queries, query patterns andvisualizations. The information may be collected during operation ofsystem and may be used to determine a visualization to present inresponse to a received query, and based on the query and the user fromwhom the query was received.

Each of clients 140 may include one or more devices executing programcode of the applications 145 for presenting user interfaces to allowinteraction with application server 130. The user interfaces ofapplications 145 may comprise user interfaces suited for reporting, dataanalysis, and/or any other functions based on the data of data store110. Presentation of a user interface may include any degree or type ofrendering, depending on the type of user interface code generated byserver 130. For example, a client 140 may execute a Web Browser torequest and receive a Web page (e.g., in HTML format) from applicationserver 130 via HTTP, HTTPS, and/or Web Socket, and may render andpresent the Web page according to known protocols.

One or more of clients 140 may also or alternatively present userinterfaces by executing a standalone executable file (e.g., an .exefile) or code (e.g., a JAVA applet) within a virtual machine. Clients140 may execute applications 145 which perform merge operations ofunderlying data files stored in data store 110. Furthermore, clients 140may execute the conflict resolution methods and processes describedherein to resolve data conflicts between different versions of a datafile stored in the data store 110. A user interface may be used todisplay underlying data records, and the like.

According to various embodiments, one or more of the applications 145may include a keyboard navigation menu that enables keyboard controls ofthe navigation through the application. FIG. 1B illustrates an exampleof a process 150B of a user device 150 interacting with an application145 comprising a plurality of activities/pages. The user device 150 mayinclude or otherwise be connected to a keyboard 152 such as a physicalkeyboard, a virtual keyboard, or the like. Here, the application 145 isimplemented with the keyboard navigation menu according to variousembodiments.

Key presses input on the keyboard 152 may control navigation within aview of the application 145 based on designated or otherwise assignedkeyboard inputs within the keyboard navigation menu. For example,different keyboard inputs may be assigned to different pages of theapplication 145. When a key press is detected on the keyboard 152, thekey press may be compared to keyboard inputs within the keyboardnavigation menu. If the keypress corresponds to a page within theapplication 145, a user interface displaying the application 145 maynavigate to the selected page. Examples of the keyboard navigation menuare further shown and described with respect to FIGS. 3A-3F.

FIG. 2 illustrates a mouse-controlled navigation menu 210 in accordancewith example embodiments. Referring to FIG. 2 , a user interface 200includes a display of a software application which includes a pluralityof functions represented by tabs 211-216 within the navigation menu 210.In this example, there is not enough room on the screen for all of thetabs to be displayed. For example, the functions Billing, Orders, Sales,Returns, etc. are additional functions which have tabs that cannot bedisplayed within the confined space of the navigation menu 210.

In order to navigation to a function such as Groups, Products, Cash,Shipping, or Delivery, a user may click on a corresponding tab 211, 212,213, 214, or 215, respectively. In order to make this selection, theuser may control a cursor with a mouse or some other pointer such as afinger or stylus on a touch screen. When the user clicks on a tab fromamong the tabs 211-215, the corresponding page of the function willappear in a context area 220 of the user interface 200. Meanwhile, forremaining tabs that are not present in the navigation menu, the user mayselect a tab 216 which opens a drop-down menu. This allows the user toselect one of the hidden tabs through a second mouse click.

However, the drawbacks of the navigation menu 210 include lack of spacewhich results in some tabs being hidden, user commands that mustmanipulate a cursor or other pointer, and multiple commands that must beperformed to open and select hidden tabs.

According to various embodiments, provided is a keyboard navigation menuthat may be used in addition to an existing navigation men 210 or asstandalone navigation concept without the navigation menu 210. Some ofthe benefits of keyboard navigation menu include fast navigation withkeyboard support (shortcuts), increased screen availability for otherapplication/page content, availability of all menu items through asingle command, and the like. In other words, no menu items requiremultiple inputs (even when they are hidden). Furthermore, as explainedbelow with respect to FIG. 3D, the keyboard navigation menu alsoprovides a learning mode which can partially collapse the menu enablinga new user to visually recognize the keyboard inputs associated with thedifferent functions of the application.

In some embodiments, the keyboard navigation menu may include a mousemode (such as shown in FIG. 2 ) where the keyboard activation menu isnot supported. The keyboard activation menu may also include a keyboardmode in which the keyboard commands are active/available for navigatingto the different pages of the application. In the keyboard mode, thekeyboard navigation menu may disappear from view leaving extra spacewithin the application content. The keyboard activation menu may alsoinclude a learning mode in which the keyboard navigation menu partiallycloses. However, some of the content within the keyboard navigation menuremains visible including an identifier of the keyboard input associatedwith each function, and a portion of the function's name therebyallowing the user to quickly ascertain the correct keyboard input fornavigating to a particular function.

FIG. 3A illustrates a display of a user interface 300A displaying anapplication in mouse mode. Here, a mouse-based navigation menu 310 isactive and includes menu items 311, 312, 313, 314, 315, and 316, while akeyboard navigation menu 340 is inactive. However, an identifier of thekeyboard activation menu 340 is visible as a vertical bar on theleft-hand side of the user interface. The user interface 300A furtherincludes a content area 320 with application content displayed therein,and a side window 330 with additional data content. In this example, theidentifier of the keyboard activation menu 340 is sandwiched between thewindow 330 and the content area 320 of the user interface 300A.

In mouse mode, the keyboard activation menu 340 looks and works likemany other navigation menus that are capable of being manipulated by amouse/cursor. For example, the user may move use the cursor and mouse toselect an expansion button 341 which causes the keyboard activation menu340 to expand. In this example, the keyboard navigation menu 340 slidesopen in a horizontal direction that is outward from the keyboardnavigation menu tab.

FIG. 3B illustrates a user interface 300B which depicts the keyboardactivation menu 340 after it has been expanded by pressing the expandbutton 341 in FIG. 3A. In this example, a boundary 347 of the keyboardnavigation menu is a same size as the initial collapsed tab of thekeyboard activation menu 340 shown in FIG. 3A. However, now the contentinside the keyboard activation menu 340 is fully visible. The keyboardactivation menu 340 includes identifiers 342 of different keyboardinputs and identifiers 343 of different functions of the applicationthat are associated with the keyboard inputs. The identifiers 342 of thekeyboard inputs may be displayed separate and independent from theidentifiers 343 of the different functions, but adjacent with theidentifiers 343 or parallel to the identifiers 343 enabling a user toeasily understand which keyboard commands correspond to which functionsof the application. Once expanded, the keyboard activation menu 340 mayoperate like a typical mouse-based menu where a user can continue to usethe cursor to select the identifiers 342 and 343 to cause theapplication to navigate to the particular function. Also, in someembodiments, opening the keyboard activation menu 340 may cause themouse-based navigation menu 310 to disappear and/or become disabled. Inother embodiments, the mouse-based navigation menu may be completelyleft out of the user interface 300B.

In the example of FIG. 3B, the user moves the cursor to a “keyboard”checkbox shown in the top left corner of the keyboard navigation menu340. By checking this box, the keyboard mode of the keyboard navigationmenu is activated. Thus, the user may now enter commands (also referredto as shortcuts) via a keyboard to control navigation among the pages ofthe functions of the application. For example, if the user presses theshortcut key ‘4’ or the key combination ‘Alt+4’, the content area 320 ofthe user interface 300B may navigate to the Shipping page of theapplication. If the functions cannot fit within the keyboard activationmenu 340, a down arrow (not shown) may be displayed which allows theuser to scroll down and visualize any hidden function/key presscombinations. In addition, the keyboard activation menu 340 may includea collapse arrow that, when selected, causes the extended keyboardactivation menu 340 to collapse back to its original position.

Once the keyboard mode is activated, the keyboard activation menu 340may collapse to its initial state as shown in FIG. 3C where theidentifiers 342 and 343 are hidden from view and the only element thatis visible is the identifier of the keyboard navigation menu 340.However, in some embodiments, an activation indicator 344 as shown inFIG. 3C may be added within the identifier of the collapsed keyboardactivation menu 340, to represent that the keyboard mode is now active.In this example, the user presses the keyboard input ‘Alt+4’ while thekeyboard mode is on. As a result, the content area 320 of the userinterface 300C display the content of the shipping page corresponding tothe keyboard input ‘Alt+4’. Thus, even though the content of thekeyboard activation menu 340 is hidden from view, the user can navigateto different pages of the application using commands within the keyboardactivation menu 340. In some embodiments, the keyboard inputs may benumbers, however embodiments are not limited thereto. For example, theremay be as many numbers as application functions. As another example,characters, symbols, numbers, commands, or a combination thereof may beused.

Meanwhile, FIG. 3D illustrates an example of a user interface 300D inwhich the keyboard navigation menu 340 is shown in learning mode. Forexample, it may be difficult for a user to remember all possiblekeyboard inputs and the corresponding application functions. Therefore,the keyboard navigation menu 340 may provide a learning mode. Forexample, with the keyboard navigation menu 340 open as shown in FIG. 3B,the user may select a “Learning” checkbox as shown in FIG. 3D to getsupport from the control to learn the keyboard inputs. In response tothe learning mode being activated, the keyboard activation menu 340 maycollapse partially so that the user can still recognize some informationabout the shortcuts and the keyboard inputs and the functions associatedtherewith. Learning mode may work the same as keyboard mode except thatthe keyboard navigation menu remains partially visible instead ofhidden.

In some embodiments, a width 345 of the partial collapse may be modifiedor otherwise adjusted by the user. For example, the user may specify anumber of pixels, characters, screen space, etc., which are displayed inlearning mode thereby allowing the user to personalize the learning modesettings, as further described with respect to FIG. 3E. In the exampleof FIG. 3D, the user has selected to have 4 characters visible whichresults in a width 345 as shown in the example of FIG. 3D.

FIG. 3E illustrates a user interface 300E in which a user has selectedsettings button within the keyboard navigation menu 340. In response tothe selection of the edit button, a settings menu 350 may be output inthe form of a pop-up menu or the like. The settings menu 350 includes aplurality of fields 351-354 for adjusting features of the keyboardnavigation menu 340 including a shortcut field 351 which can be used toassign and adjust a key for the keyboard shortcut “Ctrl”, “Alt”,“SHIFT”, etc., a position field 352 which allows a user to assign andadjust a placement of the keyboard navigation menu on the page, such asleft or right side, a learning characters field 353 which allows theuser to assign and adjust the number of characters that will bedisplayed when control is in learning mode, and an always active field354 which allows the user to assign and adjust whether the keyboard modeis always active even after a browser restart (new session). Thesettings menu may include other features such as color change optionsfor the keyboard navigation menu 340, and the like.

FIG. 3F illustrates a user interface 300F which depicts the keyboardnavigation menu before (340A) and after (340B) a rearrangement offunctions within the keyboard navigation menu 340. Here, the functionsmay be ordered in a list. When a user presses the edit button, thekeyboard navigation menu 340A may display up and down arrows which canbe selected to cause the function to move up and down the list withinthe keyboard navigation menu. Thus, the user can modify which functionsare associated with which keyboard inputs. For example, the user mayswitch the first and second functions (i.e., Groups and Products) inkeyboard navigation menu 340A to create a modified keyboard navigationmenu 340B in which the keyboard inputs associated with the first andsecond functions have switched. In this example, the Groups function isassociated with a first keyboard input 346A in the keyboard navigationmenu 340A. However, after the rearrangement, the first keyboard input346B in the keyboard navigation menu 340B is assigned to Products. Therearrangement can be done via drag and drop or as here shown withspecial icons. The shortcut number (keyboard input) may always remain atthe same position in the list while the functions move up and down. Thatmeans, that a user can rearrange a function e.g. “Products” withshortcut “2” to a new shortcut “1”.

FIG. 4 illustrates a method 400 of controlling navigation via a keyboardnavigation menu in accordance with an example embodiment. For example,the method 400 may be performed by a software program running on adatabase node, a cloud platform, a server, a computing system (userdevice), a combination of devices/nodes, or the like. Referring to FIG.4 , in 410 the method may include displaying, via a user interface, akeyboard navigation menu comprising a plurality of different keyboardinputs that when pressed navigate a view of the user interface to aplurality of pages of a software application, respectively. For example,the keyboard navigation menu may be displayed in response to a selectionmade by the user via the user interface. Here, the user may activate thekeyboard navigation menu by selecting a tab or other identifier of thekeyboard navigation menu with the user interface.

In some embodiments, the displaying may include sliding a display of thekeyboard navigation menu in a horizontal direction in response to anopen command. In this example, the keyboard navigation menu may slide ina direction that is perpendicular to a drop-down men. In someembodiments, the menu may overlap and hide a portion of the applicationcontent that is underneath.

In some embodiments, the method may further include partially collapsingthe display of the keyboard navigation menu in an opposite horizontaldirection to partially hide the keyboard navigation menu while leavingthe plurality of different keyboard inputs visible, in response to arequest for a learning mode. In some embodiments, the method may furtherinclude adjusting a horizontal width of the partial collapse of thekeyboard navigation based on a change request received via the userinterface. For example, a user may specify a number of characters of anactivity/page identifier to display, and the keyboard navigation menumay partially collapse to a point where the number of characters arestill visible while the remaining characters are not visible.

In 420, the method may include detecting a keyboard input from among theplurality of different keyboard inputs which corresponds to a secondpage from among the plurality of pages of the software application. Forexample, the user may enter a key press into a keyboard (physical,virtual, etc.), and the application may compare the numbers, characters,symbols, etc. included in the key press. If they key press matches a keypress of a page from among the plurality of pages as specified in thekeyboard navigation menu, the application may navigate to a view of thecorresponding page. For example, in 430, the method may include changinga view of the user interface from the first page to the second page ofthe software application that corresponds to the detected keyboardinput.

In some embodiments, the method may further include displaying atab-based navigation menu comprising a plurality of tabs that whenselected via a mouse are configured to navigate to the plurality ofpages of the software application, respectively. In some embodiments,the displaying the keyboard navigation menu may include hiding thedisplayed tab-based navigation menu and opening the keyboard navigationmenu within the view of the user interface. In some embodiments, thedisplaying the keyboard navigation menu may include displaying labels ofthe plurality of pages next to labels of the plurality of differentkeyboard inputs, respectively, within the keyboard navigation menu. Insome embodiments, the method may further include modifying a keyboardinput that is assigned to a page of the software application based on arequest via the user interface.

FIG. 5 illustrates a computing system 500 that may be used in any of themethods and processes described herein, in accordance with an exampleembodiment. For example, the computing system 500 may be a databasenode, a server, a cloud platform, or the like. In some embodiments, thecomputing system 500 may be distributed across multiple computingdevices such as multiple database nodes.

Referring to FIG. 5 , the computing system 500 includes a networkinterface 510, a processor 520, an input/output 530, and a storagedevice 540 such as an in-memory storage, and the like. Although notshown in FIG. 5 , the computing system 500 may also include or beelectronically connected to other components such as a microphone, adisplay, an input unit(s), a receiver, a transmitter, a persistent disk,and the like. The processor 520 may control or replace any of the othercomponents of the computing system 500.

The network interface 510 may transmit and receive data over a networksuch as the Internet, a private network, a public network, an enterprisenetwork, and the like. The network interface 510 may be a wireless radiointerface, a wired interface such as a network card, a satellitecommunication interface, or a combination thereof. The processor 520 mayinclude one or more processing devices each including one or moreprocessing cores. In some examples, the processor 520 is a multicoreprocessor or a plurality of multicore processors. Also, the processor520 may be fixed or it may be reconfigurable. The input/output 530 mayinclude an interface, a port, a cable, a bus, a board, a wire, and thelike, for inputting and outputting data to and from the computing system500. For example, data may be output to an embedded display of thecomputing system 500, an externally connected display, a displayconnected to the cloud, another device, and the like. The networkinterface 510, the input/output 530, the storage 540, or a combinationthereof, may interact with applications executing on other devices.

The storage device 540 is not limited to a particular storage device andmay include any known memory device such as RAM, ROM, hard disk, and thelike, and may or may not be included within a database system, a cloudenvironment, a web server, or the like. The storage 540 may storesoftware modules or other non-transitory instructions which can beexecuted by the processor 520 to perform the methods and processesdescribed herein. The storage 540 may include a data store having aplurality of tables, partitions and sub-partitions. The storage 540 maybe used to store database records, items, entries, and the like. Also,the storage 540 may be queried using SQL commands.

According to various embodiments, the processor 520 may display, via auser interface, a keyboard navigation menu comprising a plurality ofdifferent keyboard inputs that when pressed navigate a view of the userinterface to a plurality of pages of a software application,respectively. The processor 520 may detect a keyboard input from amongthe plurality of different keyboard inputs which corresponds to a secondpage from among the plurality of pages of the software application. Theprocessor 520 may change a view of the user interface from the firstpage to the second page of the software application that corresponds tothe detected keyboard input.

As will be appreciated based on the foregoing specification, theabove-described examples of the disclosure may be implemented usingcomputer programming or engineering techniques including computersoftware, firmware, hardware or any combination or subset thereof. Anysuch resulting program, having computer-readable code, may be embodiedor provided within one or more non-transitory computer-readable media,thereby making a computer program product, i.e., an article ofmanufacture, according to the discussed examples of the disclosure. Forexample, the non-transitory computer-readable media may be, but is notlimited to, a fixed drive, diskette, optical disk, magnetic tape, flashmemory, external drive, semiconductor memory such as read-only memory(ROM), random-access memory (RAM), and/or any other non-transitorytransmitting and/or receiving medium such as the Internet, cloudstorage, the Internet of Things (IoT), or other communication network orlink. The article of manufacture containing the computer code may bemade and/or used by executing the code directly from one medium, bycopying the code from one medium to another medium, or by transmittingthe code over a network.

The computer programs (also referred to as programs, software, softwareapplications, “apps”, or code) may include machine instructions for aprogrammable processor, and may be implemented in a high-levelprocedural and/or object-oriented programming language, and/or inassembly/machine language. As used herein, the terms “machine-readablemedium” and “computer-readable medium” refer to any computer programproduct, apparatus, cloud storage, internet of things, and/or device(e.g., magnetic discs, optical disks, memory, programmable logic devices(PLDs)) used to provide machine instructions and/or data to aprogrammable processor, including a machine-readable medium thatreceives machine instructions as a machine-readable signal. The“machine-readable medium” and “computer-readable medium,” however, donot include transitory signals. The term “machine-readable signal”refers to any signal that may be used to provide machine instructionsand/or any other kind of data to a programmable processor.

The above descriptions and illustrations of processes herein should notbe considered to imply a fixed order for performing the process steps.Rather, the process steps may be performed in any order that ispracticable, including simultaneous performance of at least some steps.Although the disclosure has been described in connection with specificexamples, it should be understood that various changes, substitutions,and alterations apparent to those skilled in the art can be made to thedisclosed embodiments without departing from the spirit and scope of thedisclosure as set forth in the appended claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A computing system comprising: a processor configured to: display, via a user interface of a software application, an embedded menu bar that comprises a plurality of menu options which when clicked on by a pointer mechanism navigate a view of the user interface to a plurality of pages of the software application, respectively, detect an activation input via a keyboard navigation menu identifier on the user interface of the software application, and in response to the detection, remove the embedded menu bar from the user interface and display, via the user interface, a keyboard navigation menu at a location of the keyboard navigation menu identifier, wherein the keyboard navigation menu comprises a plurality of identifiers of the plurality of menu options from the embedded menu bar mapped to a plurality of keyboard commands, respectively, inside a content area of the keyboard navigation menu.
 2. The computing system of claim 1, wherein the embedded menu bar comprises a set of menu options, and the processor is further configured to display the keyboard navigation menu with identifiers of a different set of menu options.
 3. The computing system of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to remove the embedded menu bar by scrolling the embedded menu bar toward an edge of the user interface until the embedded menu bar is hidden from the user interface.
 4. The computing system of claim 1, wherein the processor is configured to display the plurality of identifiers of the plurality of menu options arranged horizontally with respect to each other in the keyboard navigation menu.
 5. The computing system of claim 1, wherein the keyboard navigation menu identifier comprises a vertical bar, and the processor is configured to slide the keyboard navigation menu horizontally within the user interface from an edge of the keyboard navigation menu identifier on which the activation input is received.
 6. The computing system of claim 5, wherein the processor is configured to partially collapse the keyboard navigation menu in an opposite horizontal direction to partially hide the identifiers of the plurality of different keyboard commands, in response to a request for a learning mode.
 7. The computing system of claim 1, wherein the processor is configured to display the keyboard navigation menu over a portion of the view within the user interface.
 8. A method comprising: displaying, via a user interface of a software application, an embedded menu bar comprising a plurality of menu options which when selected by a pointer mechanism navigate a view of the user interface to a plurality of pages of the software application, respectively; detecting an activation input via a keyboard navigation menu identifier of a keyboard navigation menu on the user interface of the software application; and in response to the detecting, removing the embedded menu bar from the user interface and displaying, via the user interface, the keyboard navigation menu at a location of the keyboard navigation menu identifier, wherein the keyboard navigation menu comprises a plurality of identifiers of the plurality of menu options from the embedded menu bar mapped to a plurality of keyboard commands, respectively, inside a content area of the keyboard navigation menu.
 9. The method of claim 8, wherein the embedded menu bar comprises a set of menu options, and the displaying the keyboard navigation menu comprises displaying the keyboard navigation menu with identifiers of a different set of menu options.
 10. The method of claim 8, wherein the removing comprises removing the embedded menu bar by scrolling the embedded menu bar toward an edge of the user interface until the embedded menu bar is hidden from the user interface.
 11. The method of claim 8, wherein the displaying comprises displaying the plurality of identifiers of the plurality of menu options arranged horizontally with respect to each other in the keyboard navigation menu.
 12. The method of claim 8, wherein the keyboard navigation menu identifier comprises a vertical bar, and the instantiating comprises sliding the keyboard navigation menu horizontally within the user interface from an edge of the keyboard navigation menu identifier on which the activation input is received.
 13. The method of claim 12, wherein the method further comprises partially collapsing the keyboard navigation menu in an opposite horizontal direction to partially hide the identifiers of the plurality of different keyboard commands, in response to a request for a learning mode.
 14. The method of claim 8, wherein the instantiating comprises displaying the keyboard navigation menu over a portion of the view within the user interface.
 15. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions that when executed by a processor cause a computer to perform a method comprising: displaying, via a user interface of a software application, an embedded menu bar comprising a plurality of menu options which when clicked on by a pointer mechanism navigate a view of the user interface to a plurality of pages of the software application, respectively; detecting an activation input via a keyboard navigation menu identifier of a keyboard navigation menu on the user interface of the software application; and in response to the detecting, removing the embedded menu bar from the user interface and displaying, via the user interface, the keyboard navigation menu at a location of the keyboard navigation menu identifier, wherein the keyboard navigation menu comprises a plurality of identifiers of a plurality of different keyboard commands mapped to the plurality of menu options from the embedded menu bar, respectively, inside a content area of the keyboard navigation menu.
 16. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the embedded menu bar comprises a set of menu options, and the displaying the keyboard navigation menu comprises displaying the keyboard navigation menu with identifiers of a different set of menu options.
 17. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the removing comprises removing the embedded menu bar by scrolling the embedded menu bar toward an edge of the user interface until the embedded menu bar is hidden from the user interface. 